Tag: gaming

I know how it feels to be advertised to especially in the social media age. I live and breathe video games so naturally i’m targeted by retailers who want me to buy the latest and greatest games. Amazon emails me game recommendations, when I log into Facebook I get adverts there, my friends are buying the newest Fifa or PES and sharing their goals online, basically everywhere I look, the newest games are shoved down my throat.

What is the effect of all of this? I feel like I MUST run out on release day and buy the newest games. We all know this is ridiculous but we do it anyway, I know that I did it. Psychologically it can be hard to resist, what if I get left behind? What if my friends are talking about it? What if the ending is spoiled before I have had a chance to play? These are just a few questions that won’t help when making informed purchasing decisions. With that being said here is some free advice for holding back, take it or leave it as you will.

Money savings – It should go without saying but games drop in price the older they get. I’m not even talking about years but months. After a game is released I can almost guarantee that after 2-3 short months that a game will be on sale, perhaps 20 euros cheaper than it was on the day it was released and sometimes up to 50% cheaper. If you wait 6 months to one year you can get absolute bargains. I recently picked up Star Wars Battlefront for 10 euros brand new!

You owe it to your partner/kids/wallet (delete as necessary) to make savings where you can and by being patient and waiting will really help with this.

Watch gameplay videos – Watching other people play video games shouldn’t be shameful. Think about it, people now watch tv of other people watching TV! By watching your favourite YouTubers play the latest games you can get your fix without having to rush out and pay top dollar; With YouTube and Twitch live streams you can even get in on the action by sending comments and getting live shout-outs. Watching gameplay videos is quite addictive and is honestly the next best thing to actually playing yourself.

Tom Clancey’s The Divison – A bargain at 15 euros.

Buy older titles when new games are released – This is another thing I like to do. Just before a big title is released, try looking on Amazon or Ebay or any other site you trust and look for some bargain basement titles. You will be amazed at how cheap last years mega blockbusting titles are. Just before the release of Resident Evil 7, I bought The Division for 15 euros. The Division is amazing and is keeping me occupied whilst I wait for Resi to become cheaper. Also the older titles benefit from updates so you will usually get a better version of the game than when it was released. The perfect example of course being No Man’s Sky and I don’t need to say anything more on that games release!

Don’t believe the hype/reviews – There are of course biased reviews, hell if a game company ever sent me a game for free i’d probably give it a positive review in the hope that they send me another one in the future, that is human nature sadly. So i’m always trying to avoid the first reviews from the bigger gaming media outlets, you should never trust any reviews anyway as everything comes down to personal choice, nothing is ever truly impartial. (Listen to developer Dino Dini’s podcast on that subject).